BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo at yeah write—Day 30: the final day of blogging where ain’t nobody got no socks

If you’ve been NaBloPoMo-ing all month, then nothing matters other than that November is over. You did it. Who cares about Thanksgiving, who cares about football games, parades, Hanukkah, or “Black Friday?” What matters is that tomorrow you can let go of those late-night “omigod I didn’t post” panic attacks, and settle into the seasonally appropriate panic of “omigod the holidays wha???”

I confess: I failed NaBlo. I’ve done it three different times before but this month? I couldn’t. It was, as my children would say, an epic fail on my part. Oh I had grand plans, all right, yessirree; I was full of piss and vinegar at the start the month, and words were just burbling out of me. And by mid-month, there I was, scrambling for an interesting photo, making links to things I was writing elsewhere, starting posts that I would “finish in a minute” and that are still languishing in my drafts queue. Pride goeth, my friends, pride goeth…

The morass of NaBloPoMo started to remind me of what happens when I forget to do laundry for a few days–everything’s fine at first and there are enough socks to go around, and then blammo where’s the shirt, where’s the uniform, where’s the jersey, and ain’t nobody got no socks. For the first time this month, I started to wonder if I were going to run out of words and of course, thinking that thought makes it harder to produce words, thus making it harder to believe that the words will come.

And being stuck in that particular rinse-and-repeat cycle of wordlessness is why –in this season of giving thanks — I am grateful to yeah write. Yeah, yeah, I can hear the cynics among you scoffing, you didn’t do the full round of comments, you didn’t even post every day. But even though I am hanging my head in shame, I will say that I read every day, and in the reading, I found more words. That’s the great thing about reading: it helps you write. When I first moved to Abu Dhabi and felt really quite adrift on the sea of strangeness that was my new life, I anchored in yeahwrite: posting, reading, commenting, posting again. Sometimes I even won the grid (cue applause and dancing bears). I am more grounded here now, which is good, but the energy of yeah write reminds me of the importance of telling stories, of finding ways to shape our experiences into narratives that others can understand.

Goodness, I believe I am verging on maudlin, and even without any Thanksgiving wine (because in Abu Dhabi, as I write this post, it’s not Thanksgiving; it’s just Thursday). So before I start to sound like actors in a bad beer commercial, I will say only that you’ll read this post a few days after Thanksgiving, and the the day after what is now known as Black Friday. You know, that day in all the history books, the day when Pilgrims and Native Americans spent from pre-dawn till dusk engaged in massive wampum-for-bead exchanges. Yeah. So. Whether you’re still in a tryptophan coma, or a Hanukkah haze, or braving the crowds somewhere (really? really? that’s what you want to do? Nah. Stay home. Have another cuppa coffee; read some blogs; put your feet up. There. Don’t you feel better?) … regardless of what you’re doing, all you inhabitants of this here yeah write grid, to you all I give thanks. Yeah write offers us all a port in the storm, a place where words and laughter (and occasionally tears) can find refuge and readers.

A Thanksgiving toast, then: to readers, to writers, to yeah write. And to November being over very, very soon.

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Did you make it? Whatever your goal, did you get there? More writing discipline, stronger blogging relationships, genuine friendships? We’ve got a winner’s badge for you over in the sidebar.

For those of you who haven’t missed a day, including today by 11:59 p.m. your local time, we will be throwing your names into a hat and drawing a random winner for our muy grande perk package: a book bundle from the yeah write editors, Erica M’s personal favorite book of all time, and a basket of your favorite Trader Joe’s goodies from Stacie D. That winner will be announced on Monday, December 2, giving everyone time to finish out November and time for us to verify the winning blogger.

Thanks for a wonderfully hectic and busy and challenging month of blogging here at yeah write. Thanks for hanging out with us.

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3 Comments

Loved the post! To me personally I feel that anyone who was crazy enough to sign up for this deserves a badge of honour…and to do it be it one week or the whole 4 weeks also deserve applause because it just shows us that we are capable of coming out of our boxes and trying things out 🙂